Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS)

The Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS) Initiative began in 2003 under the administration of Governor Mark Warner in an effort to provide assistance to Virginia schools having difficulty reaching success on accreditation and adequate yearly progress (AYP) benchmarks. During this first year, PASS received national recognition from the Southern Growth Policies Board for Leadership Development and Civic Engagement.

PASS features specific intervention strategies that have been used effectively in high-poverty rural and urban schools in Virginia. During the early years of PASS, the initiative provided individual schools with technical assistance including on-site coaches to work directly with the principal and school leadership team. With the success rate of this early model, each year the Office of School Improvement (OSI) assesses the needs of all of schools and divisions in improvement and adjusts the PASS initiative accordingly.

Today, PASS continues to be the primary source of service and technical assistance provided by the OSI. It has evolved from initially providing assistance to school principals into a complex, sophisticated technical assistance model. A major focus is now helping school divisions build capacity at the division level in order to be better prepared in assisting with meeting the needs of their individual schools. See News for additional information from the Office of School Improvement.

Differentiated Technical Assistance

OSI is committed to serving more than 110 divisions and over 700 schools with assistance that is unique to their individual needs. In order to differentiate technical assistance to meet individual needs, the OSI is making available a full range of options including:

School Improvement Planning – School improvement planning technical assistance for all Title 1 and non-Title 1 schools that failed to meet the federal Annual Measurable Objective as required by the No Child Left Behind requirements

Academic Reviews – Technical assistance for all schools accredited with warning or provisionally accredited and high schools accredited with warning due to graduation rate

Partnerships

Additionally, very important partnerships with a variety of outside contractors and organizations have been formed over the years as an outgrowth of the PASS initiative. Each partnership greatly assists the efforts of the OSI to support divisions and schools in need. Those partnerships include:

Experienced school and division administrators including former superintendents who serve as academic review facilitators, division liaisons, lead turnaround facilitators, providers of differentiated technical assistance, and regional liaisons

PASS is leading a VDOE Intra-agency Technical Assistance Team. This team serves as an arm of the VDOE Statewide System of Support with the primary role of assisting the Office of School Improvement with identifying and implementing differentiated technical assistance to school divisions with schools identified as needing support. The purpose of the team is to share information about resources and technical assistance to better coordinate VDOE support of schools.

For additional information or questions regarding the Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS), please contact Michael Hill at the Office of School Improvement at 804-225-2665 or by email at Michael.Hill@doe.virginia.gov.